1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to systems that allow customers to preview or sample the content of media products, such as CDs, DVDs, software, video games, etc. prior to purchase. In particular, the present invention relates to a system that connects media sampling stations located within multiple retail locations to data source, inventory management, point-of-sale, and customer relationship management systems, and that thereby allows the sampling stations to present a user-individualized interactive menu to a customer, which is configured in substantially real-time to take into account present inventory, pricing, and sale items, as well as a customer's preferences, purchasing history, personal information and wish list information.
2. Description of the Background Art
Systems and methods for previewing and remote purchasing of multimedia products are generally known in the art, see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,918,213 to Bernard et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,195,436 and 6,133,908 to Scibora et al., and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,237,157 and 5,963,136 to Kaplan.
For example, the '213 patent (“Bernard”) discloses a remote product purchasing system wherein customers can shop for and purchase products through a remote communication medium (such as a telephone, a network data connection, or a direct data link). When the customer accesses the system, she is able to browse through various product selections offered by the product purchasing system. For example, where the customer has only voice access, a spoken description or audio sample of the product may be provided. Where the customer is connected to the product purchasing system over a network such as the Internet, a visual description such as a movie clip, also may be provided. The customer may browse according to product name, product category, or according to top seller lists of product categories. The customer then may place an order for desired merchandise through the remote communication medium, by providing payment information such as a credit card number, and shipping information identifying a location at which the customer desires to accept delivery of the purchased merchandise. While Bernard describes one possible use of a remote communication medium having a direct data link to the automated product purchase system from a retail store, the product purchase system either is not associated with the retail store but represents a different merchant, or is associated with a single retail location only. Further, while Bernard discloses the storage of customer information, the stored customer information is not used to tailor the presentation of information to the customer.
The '157 patent to Kaplan discloses a standalone kiosk containing stored information from which a customer may obtain selections for sampling or previewing. For example, the kiosk contains a number of CD-ROM disks containing preselected music samples of which a customer may listen.
The '916 patent to Kaplan discloses a website to which a user is uniquely identified in order to allow the user to gain access to the website and select particular samples of recorded music products for prelistening. The user's selections are recorded to develop market research data.
While various systems for sampling music, video and other multimedia products are described in the prior art, none of the prior art systems even attempt to provide a comprehensive individual customer oriented system wherein a customer's preferences and other personal information are used to provide a customer-specific interactive experience at a retail location. Further, none of the prior art systems allow the same customer-specific experience over a remote network connection (such as the Internet) as well as at a retail location.